Weekly Billboard Theory — rockstar
I’ve often talked with friends about the disconnect between rock music and hip-hop. Post Malone’s “rockstar” is the perfect opportunity to discuss this as the music reflects some of these ideas as well. I personally loved Mr. Malone’s “Congratulations” so I figured I’d have similar feelings about this song. Was that assumption correct? Not quite, but there’s still some interesting stuff.
Post Malone ft. 21 Savage
Key: G minor
Tempo: 160 BPM
First of all, I am S H O C K E D this song is above Taylor Swift right now. No music video for it? Wild. Post Malone and 21 Savage are probably as hot as they’ll ever be right now but it’s still shocking that they’ve taken down a staple in the pop music world without an official music video for their song. Clearly, streaming has changed the format for what dominates the charts.
Alright, let’s do some ~theory stuff~ real quick. The chord progression is pretty familiar: i-VI or vi-IV if you like thinking in a major key (I do). We saw a very similar chord progression LAST WEEK! Remember how I said that “IV-vi are incredibly common in more ‘emotional’ music?” So yeah, this song has kind of an ~emotional beat~ by that definition. But why? Why would we want an introspective accompaniment to a song with lines such as “I’ve been f***in’ h**s and poppin’ pillies, Man, I feel just like a rockstar”? Well, ask yourself. Is that a life that you’d really want?
Let’s backtrack a little bit to that first sentence in the writeup. I feel that rappers don’t quite understand what “rockstars” are and vice versa. “Who are you to know what either are?!” you probably scream at me. I’m a boring guy with a year and a half of touring as a bassist for a rock band who’s several degrees away from some pretty big acts. That’s not important to be honest, what IS important is that there is a cultural idea of how “rockstars” and “rappers” behave that may have been accurate at one point in time but don’t seem to be particularly relevant now. I’m sure you can think of stories of rockstars trashing hotel rooms, but does this really happen anymore? I don’t have hard numbers to back these assumptions up, if I’m being honest. But from my experience, no that doesn’t happen. Sorry, Shop Boyz. Nobody throws TVs out of hotel rooms. You’re not Mark Wahlberg. The rare occasion that this stuff still might happen is most likely when people feel the need to fit into the “rockstar” image that’s been portrayed on them because honestly? Nobody is making enough money to be that destructive in the rock scene.
Let’s crunch some simple numbers. Your band is going on tour, right? Let’s say your band is a four piece (four person band). And then you have someone to sell merch. A tour manager to handle all the logistic stuff because you’re probably a dumb dumb. This is kind of the minimum for a very small band unless you’re taking on some of those duties yourself. In a slightly bigger band that’s making some money? Cool, you’re probably taking out a photographer/videographer to produce new content while you’re out. Want to make sure you sound good? You need a front of house person to make sure the mix is good for the crowd because the engineers at venues often don’t tour for a reason (they’re not that great). You wouldn’t be a rockstar if you set up your own gear, right? So you need a guitar/drum/light/monitor tech to do that and you’re very lucky to find one person capable of doing all that so you’ll probably need multiple. Side note: if you in fact ARE looking for one person that can do all of that, hmu and I’ll send a resume. So wait, how many people are we at for a mid level band. Yeah, like 8–10 people. Let’s add a driver in there too for good measure. This is a loooot of people to pay when streaming rarely gets you any money. Also, I’m not even factoring in management and agents and marketing teams and other people that are often not great at their job. But still, we glamorize this lifestyle as if there is any money to be made when that is very rarely the case. Ultimately, it’s not just rappers that look at the rockstar this way as many forms of media perpetuate these dated ideas.
BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE MUSIC? Well, for the first time in a song with this subject matter, we have a somber beat. Maybe, just maybe, Post Malone and 21 Savage realize that this life that they had idealized wasn’t quite what they thought it would be. The lyrics don’t represent this, but if you ignore them (like I tend to) does the song really sound like what you would picture when you hear the word “rockstar?” Heck, there’s not even any guitars! I would argue that the lack of guitars strengthens my point. If you’re not in the know then you probably haven’t realized that some of your favorite bands use backing tracks when they perform live and even more use digital amplifier simulations. I think there’s no shame in any of this as it helps to guarantee a great performance, but knowing this is kind of like looking at the man behind the curtain. A rock performance isn’t all you thought it would be and the instrumentation to “rockstar” displays this. So yes, I’ve my arms are pretty tired from this reach but I think it’s a pretty stark contrast to other songs about this tired subject matter.
Next week next week what we got what we got. Cardi B still at number one heck yeah. Lot of familiar faces until number 7 with PORTUGAL. THE MAN?!? What year is it?! Wild listening to these guys like a decade ago and now they’re in the top 10. What a time. Come back next week for when I write about “Feel It Still”. See ya then.
